1. medicine A supportive device, usually a pad with a belt, worn to prevent enlargement of a hernia or the return of a reduced hernia.
2. A rigid framework, as of wooden beams or metal bars, designed to support a structure, such as a roof.
3. architecture A bracket.
4. something gathered into a bundle; a pack.
5. nautical an iron fitting by which a lower yard is secured to a mast.
6. botany A compact cluster of flowers at the end of a stalk.
7. to tie up or bind tightly.
8. to bind or skewer the wings or legs of (a fowl) before cooking.
9. to support or brace with a truss.

1. A bandage and belt used to hold a hernia in place.
2. A structure made up of one or more triangular units made from straight beams of wood or metal, which is used to support a structure as in a roof or bridge.
3. A triangular bracket.
4. an old english farming measurement. one truss of straw equalled 36 pounds, a truss of old hay equalled 56 pounds, a truss of new hay equalled 60 pounds, and 36 trusses equalled one load.
5. to tie up a bird before cooking it.
6. to secure or bind with ropes.
7. to support.

1. A bundle; a package.
2. A padded jacket or dress worn under armor, to protect the body from the effects of friction; also, a part of a woman's dress; a stomacher.
3. A bandage or apparatus used in cases of hernia, to keep up the reduced parts and hinder further protrusion, and for other purposes.
4. A tuft of flowers formed at the top of the main stalk, or stem, of certain plants.
5. the rope or iron used to keep the center of a yard to the mast.
6. an assemblage of members of wood or metal, supported at two points, and arranged to transmit pressure vertically to those points, with the least possible strain across the length of any member. architectural trusses when left visible, as in open timber roofs, often contain members not needed for construction, or are built with greater massiveness than is requisite, or are composed in unscientific ways in accordance with the exigencies of style.
7. to bind or pack close; to tie up tightly; to make into a truss.
8. to take fast hold of; to seize and hold firmly; to pounce upon.
9. to strengthen or stiffen, as a beam or girder, by means of a brace or braces.
10. to skewer; to make fast, as the wings of a fowl to the body in cooking it.
11. to execute by hanging; to hang; -- usually with up.

1. to tie up; pack in a bundle; bundle: often with up.
2. to tie, bind, or fasten: sometimes with up.
3. specifically, to adjust and draw closely the garment or garments of, as a person; also, to draw tight and tie, as laces or points.
4. to seize and hold firmly; seize and carry off: said especially of birds of prey.
5. to make fast, as the wings of a fowl to the body preparatory to cooking it; skewer.
6. to hang: usually with up.
7. in building, to furnish with a truss; suspend or support by a truss.
8. to drive off; rout.
9. to pack; make ready.
10. to go; be off; begone, as one who has been sent packing.
11. bunchy; stumpy; stocky; round and thick.
12. A bundle; pack.
13. specifically A bundle of hay or straw.
14. in horticulture, a compact terminal flower-cluster of any kind, as an umbel, corymb, or spike.
15. in surgery, an appliance consisting of a belt or an elastic steel spring encircling the body, to which is attached a pad, used in cases of rupture to hinder the descent of the parts, or to prevent an increase in size of an irreducible hernia.
16. A garment worn in the sixteenth century and previously: probably so called from being laced closely to the person.
17. plural trousers; tight-fitting drawers. see trouse, trousers.
18. in building, a stiff frame; a combination of timbers, of iron parts, or of timbers and ironwork, so arranged as to constitute an unyielding frame.
19. in architecture, a large corbel or modillion supporting a mural monument or any object projecting from the face of a wall. see crosset, 1 , with cut.
20. in ship-building, a short piece of carved work fitted under the taffrail: chiefly used in small ships.
21. A heavy iron fitting by which the lower yards of vessels are secured to the lower mast and on which they swing.

1. support structurally
2. (architecture) a triangular bracket of brick or stone (usually of slight extent)
3. (medicine) a bandage consisting of a pad and belt; worn to hold a hernia in place by pressure
4. secure with or as if with ropes
5. a framework of beams (rafters, posts, struts) forming a rigid structure that supports a roof or bridge or other structure
6. tie the wings and legs of a bird before cooking it